by Michelle McNeal

Veterans are the windows through which we can view our heritage. Their stories give us visions of heroism, courage, defeat, victory. . . war. More than 19 million veterans are living in the United States today. Every day, we lose 1,500 of them. And many of these men and women take their stories with them.

That closes the curtain to a part of our history. It barricades children from a vision of what these men and women endured. Without that view, war becomes just dates of battles in a history book, and freedom is just a word.

"If we don't learn what war was from the people who lived it, we won't know what war really costs, and we won't have the information we need to decide if we are willing to pay that price again," says Kristin Gilpatrick.

Gilpatrick has written several books containing accounts of war veterans and says their stories inspire her every day. "I've never taken for granted as I write these books that the reason I am free to do so is because all these men and women have sacrificed so much, and I have such a deep appreciation for them." Millions of war veterans have amazing stories of heroism to tell, but unfortunately, finding authors like Gilpatrick to record them is uncommon.

The U.S. Congress has recognized the pressing need to record the stories of war veterans while they are still living. In October 2000 it created the Veterans History Project. The project is seeking to obtain artifacts and oral histories of war veterans and those who supported them during World War I, World War II, the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars.

By obtaining a project kit, citizens of all ages can participate. The kit contains all the information needed to create a permanent record of a veteran's wartime experiences. For more information on this project call (202) 707-4916 or visit www.loc.gov/folklife/vets.

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Elmer Bernson, Motor Machinist Mate Second Class, U.S. Navy. He fought in Atlantic and Pacific waters and was part of the Normandy Invasion, D-Day.

"Even after I got hit, I was able to stick with it until we got the tanks unloaded and were back out to sea. "

The ship I went aboard first was the LCTA 2310, a landing craft tank about 107 feet long. It could haul three tanks and an 11-man crew. At that time I was a fireman, a seaman in the engine room. I was aboard the ship for awhile. We traveled around here and there, and had some training before we took off from this little town of Poole to head for Omaha beach.

The invasion was supposed to take place then, but it was real lousy weather and we waited. So all these ships and everything were just floating around out there for a day before they started the invasion. There was an awful lot of planning that went into this. (The Navy) had frogmen who went underwater looking for mines against the shore before we started landing. The other thing was (the Air Force) dropped paratroopers behind the lines quite a ways; of course they were nowhere near close enough.

A lot of ships went through and there were an awful lot of casualties. We succeeded because we just kept bringing more. And you weren't sure what to think, what was going to happen. The whole thing was quite secretive. We didn't know when the invasion was going to start until we were sent.

Our ship held three tanks and we were right up front. The idea was to get those tanks onto shore. One of them had a bulldozer attachment to build places for the ships to unload because the shoreline was kind of wavy. If you watched "Saving Private Ryan," we were there just before all that started.

We got our tanks in there and that's when I got hit. The ship took 17 direct hits from 57 millimeter shells and I was up in the pilothouse at the throttle. Even after I got hit, I was able to stick with it until we got the tanks unloaded and were back out to sea. All I could feel was the shock; I didn't realize I was hit until blood started running down my arm.

I think there were 21 ships sent in and seven came back out that day. It's very sad. We knew it was bad when we were there, that was for sure. We had floaters — bodies — already. But the men in the tanks were the ones who had to stay; we just took them and dropped them off. It starts to worry you, when you take these tanks in. I really felt sorry for them. We were just dropping them off and then leaving. And I always kind of wondered what happened to those guys.

That's what war is. It's hard to believe.

Some of Bernson's medals include the Purple Heart and Silver Star from the U.S., and the Croix de Guerre from the French for liberating France. He now lives in Washington, Illinois.

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"It's about camaraderie. Your life depends on them and their life depends on you."

Jim Graff, right, was an infantryman in the U.S. Army, C. Company 134th Infantry, 35th Division.

I was 18 when I went in. You kind of grow up fast. At that time we had a lot of men who were twice as old as I was. That was because (the government) originally deferred fathers. Well, as the casualties mounted, more men were needed, and so a lot of married men with kids were drafted. (The Army) put them into the combat units because they sustained the most casualties.

Of course I think it was a good mix, probably that was one of the problems in Vietnam - they didn't have any older men to guide the young fellows and keep them in line. We had a lot of guys who had experience and a lot of guys who came out of the depression and things like that.

It's about camaraderie. Your life depends on them and their life depends on you.

Because of the amount of casualties, there was a large turnover. The company I was part of in January of 1945 suffered 199 casualties. We had serious losses and something like 130 dead.

We had a pretty good terrain to fight in and the tanks could maneuver well and we really had a lot of cooperation. We had a lot of fire power from the tanks and the rifle companies would ride them until we started shooting and then would move out ahead of them. Tanks were always afraid of ambush weapons. They had a type of shoulder-fired bazooka. It only shot one round and then they had to have another one handed to them.

By the end of the war, two-thirds of the people who joined C. Company when I did were injured or killed. I was in three of the five campaigns in Europe. I was in approximately 120 days. There wasn't one man in our company who was in a combat situation who went in from day one to the last day that didn't have something happen to him. They were wounded or got sick or something; everybody missed some time. Very few of the original men even came back.

Graff received the purple heart, bronze star and Combat Infantry medals among others. He now resides in Middletown, Illinois.

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"Wild" Bill Scanlon joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941. Once America entered the war,
he joined the Eighth Air Force, 92nd Bomb Group, 326th Bomb Squadron in 1943.

I was never really afraid of flying. I never went to church or prayed; it just didn't bother me. It gave me a real thrill when I'd dive down. I loved that thrill of me against you, one on one - or one on 500 as it sometimes seemed when the "little bees" came.

Plus, I learned early on that if you're going to go, you're going to go. You knew when you flew any mission - in Spitfires or bombers or whatever - that one of two things would happen: Either you'd make it back out alive or you wouldn't. So I didn't think much about that; I just did my job. But still, there were times before a mission when I'd lie in bed with my eyes wide open and couldn't get to sleep. Yet, if you thought about it too much, you couldn't do your job, and it's not like you could send nobody else in to do it. You had to go.

There was one day after that that a bunch of us were drinking beer and talking in the mess about our missions and the ones like George that didn't make it. There were a lot because we'd always come back with three or four planes missing out of our outfit. I thought of George and Johnny. I remember sitting around talking about it that one night because we rarely did anything like that at all, especially in the Royal Air Force. There was no point in talking about the guys you lost too much because everybody had lost someone and more were going to die. You'd be too upset to do your job if you let emotion get into it. We lost a lot of good men like George though, that's for sure.

Every crew I ever flew with said, 'that guy is as cool as a cucumber,' and I guess I was because I didn't see the point in worrying about something I could do nothing about. I saw guys down on the floor crying like babies worried about it, and the thing is, doing that isn't doing anything to help you make it home. If you're going to go down, you can go down at your gun shooting back or go down on the floor crying like a baby - either way, you're going to go down.

Anybody that dies for his country is a hero. I survived some amazing things but I'm not a hero. I feel like I just did what I was supposed to do and didn't do any more than any other guy over there. Except survive. And I've talked to a lot of German fighters after the war and they thought the same as we did. Sometimes I do think about all the friends I lost. Guys like George and Johnny, they were real heroes, they gave their lives to save their country.

"Anybody that dies for his country is a hero. I survived some amazing things but I'm not a hero."

Some of Scanlon's medals include a Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and the Air Medal with Two Oak Leaf Clusters. He now resides in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

Scanion's story and photos were excerpted from Destined to Live: The Incredible Story of WWII Airman Wild Bill Scanlon by Kristin Gilpatrick. For information about the book visit www.heronextdoor.com or call (800) 928-2372.

November 11th is Veterans Day. It is a day to honor all men and women who have served America. Visit with a veteran you know. Thank them for what they have done for you and for all of America. Let them pull back the curtain and show you the sacrifice that is the price of freedom.

Visit our Web site for links to sites mentioned in this article and for other sites pertaining to Veterans Day.

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